Evanovich: Mystery By The Numbers
Janet Evanovich, the author who has given the world Stephanie Plum, has given Stephanie a little love triangle in her latest adventure, Hot Six.
In response to a question from CBS News Early Show's Julie Chen, the author describes Stephanie Plum as a bounty hunter in New Jersey who "is probably not the best at it, but is a good woman as long as she follows her instincts. And she frequently gets her man."
As a bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum tracks people known as "FTAs," people who have failed to appear for court appearances.
Evanovich started out as a romance writer. When she decided to move into writing about crime, she was looking for the perfect job for her fictional heroine. It just so happened that the movie Midnight Run, which stars Robert De Niro as a bounty hunter, turned up on television.
It was exactly what the author wanted, she recalls, "because she has a lot of personal freedom, and I didn't know a lot about law enforcement, and I realized that to be a bounty hunter, you needed a lot of chutzpah and you had to lie, which I was pretty good at. So I had all the skills necessary to write this."
Evanovich says about 48 percent of bondsmen are actually women, and many do their own apprehensions.
These days, the titles of her books are chosen by her readers by way of an annual contest. But she named her first book herself: One For the Money, which was followed by Two For the Dough, Three To Get Deadly, Four To Score, High Five, and, of course, Hot Six. She is just starting work on no. 7.
Why did she switch from writing romance novels to writing mysteries?
"I realized I liked writing action and realized I was never the world's most romantic person and ran out of positions by book seven and decided to move over into crime," says the author.
But that doesn't mean that Stephanie Plum is out of luck.
In Hot Six, the sexy and mysterious Carlos "Ranger" Manoso is the key suspect in the murder and burning of the son of an international black-market arms dealer. Ranger is Stephanie's mentor and fellow bounty hunter.
"Ranger is a very fine man, and her dilemma, if she is lucky enough to catch him: Does she turn him over to the law, or keep him for herself?" explains Evanovich.
Stephanie has had an attraction to Ranger in previous books.
"There's a growing attraction between Stephanie Plum and Ranger, and there also is a thing going between Stephanie Plum and a Trenton vice cop, Joe Morelli, so we have a little triangle here," says the author.
How much of the author is in Stephanie Plum?
"Well, I think there's a lot of me," says Evanovich. "I mean, this is not autobiographical. Stephanie is younger and slimmer and braver than I am. We react in the same way. She has a lot of my history. She has a lot of my relatives. I've pawned off all the eccentric people in my life on Stephanie."
And there are pople in her books who have a basis in real life.
"I'm related to many of these oddball characters. I dragged this extended family behind me, just like Stephanie does," she says.
Stephanie's world includes her outspoken grandmother, Grandma Mazur, who carries a concealed weapon, hides liquor in the closet and loves to go to wakes with her friends for entertainment. Another character is Lula, a former hooker, who sometimes helps Stephanie nab the person on the loose.